The present disclosure relates generally to switching devices and to methods for controlling electron tunneling within the switching devices; and more particularly to switching devices and methods based on electron tunneling modulation at an interface of the device using nanoparticles and electrochemical reactions.
Electronic switching devices including two electrodes (for example, a bottom electrode and a top electrode) and an electronic switching layer/film at the junction of the two electrodes are known. Such devices may be useful, for example, in the fabrication of devices based on electrical switching, such as molecular wire crossbar interconnects for signal routing and communications, molecular wire crossbar memory, molecular wire crossbar logic employing programmable logic arrays, multiplexers/demultiplexers for molecular wire crossbar networks, molecular wire transistors, and the like. Such devices may further be useful, for example, in the fabrication of devices based on optical switching, such as displays, electronic books, rewritable media, electrically tunable optical lenses, electrically controlled tinting for windows and mirrors, optical crossbar switches (for example, for routing signals from one of many incoming channels to one of many outgoing channels), and the like.
The switching layer/film at the junction of the electrodes enables switching between an on and off state. Mechanical movement of bistable molecular structures, direct redox of molecules, and dipole change of molecules have been proposed for switching mechanisms in molecular scale switching devices. In such approaches, the molecules in the junction are often attributed solely for the electronic property of the devices, whereas the functions of the electrode/molecule films interfaces are often ignored.